Communiqué on Major Data of the Second National Economic Census (No.1)

Office of the Leading Group of the State Council for the Second National Economic Census

National Bureau of Statistics of China

December 25, 2009

 

The second economic census was conducted in China in 2008 with the aim to keep abreast of the development of the secondary and tertiary industries^[1] of China in terms of their size and layout, and to grasp the actuality of industry organization, industry structure, industry technology and composition of production factors, and to feel out basic situation of all units on energy consumption, to establish a sound system of Business Register and Geography Information System, and to provide scientific and precise statistics records for strengthening and improving macro-control, along with making long-term development plan. The reference time point for the economic census was December 31^st of 2008, and the flow data covered the whole year of 2008. The economic census covered all legal units, establishments and self-employed individuals^[2] who were engaged in secondary and tertiary industries within the territory of China. The main contents of census include the basic characteristics of the units, the employees, the financial situation, the production and business operation situations, the production capacity, the energy consumption, as well as the scientific and technological activities.

 

The enumeration, data check and data processing of the economic census was completed, thanks to the joint efforts over the past nearly two years of relevant departments at different level and from all enumerators. Office of the Leading Group of the State Council for the Second National Economic Census made a spot-check among 30 regions by using the stratified systematic cluster random sampling, a total of 21,843 legal units and establishments (2.46‰) in 186 census districts and 24,263 self-employed individuals (0.48‰) were covered in this process. According to the results, the comprehensive error rate is 3.5‰, which met the set target of data quality. Approved by the State Council, the Office of the Leading Group for Economic Census under the State Council and the National Bureau of Statistics will release Communiqués of the Economic Census to the public according to《Regulations on National Economic Census》. The first Communiqué is disseminated as follows.

 

I. Basic Condition of Units

 

By the end of 2008, there were altogether 7,099,000 legal units engaged in the secondary and tertiary industries, up by 37.3 percent or an increase of 1,930,000 over the first economic census in 2004, there were 8,864,000 establishments, up by 29.9 percent or an increase of 2,040,000 over 2004, the number of self-employed individuals with licenses was 28,737,000, up by 31.4 percent or an increase of 6,869,000 over 2004 (see table 1).

Table 1  Number of Units and Self-employed Individuals with Licenses
	Units (10,000)	Proportion (%)
I. Legal Units	709.9	100.0
Corporations	495.9	69.9
Departments and Institutions	95.9	13.5
Social Groups and Other Legal Units	118.1	16.6
II. Establishments	886.4	100.0
Secondary Industry	230.0	25.9
Tertiary Industry	656.4	74.1
III. Self-employed Individuals with Licenses	2873.7	100.0
Secondary Industry	253.8	8.8
Tertiary Industry	2619.9	91.2

Compared to the first economic census in 2004, there were 1,709,000 more legal units, up by 52.6 percent. Of this, the number of state-owned corporations was 143,000, down by 20 percent or a decrease of 36,000, that of collective corporations 192,000, down by 44 percent or a decrease of 151,000, share-holding cooperatives corporations 64,000, down by 40.2 percent or a decrease of 43,000, that of joint-operation, limited liability and share-holding corporations was 659,000, up by 52.5 percent or an increase of 227,000, private enterprises 3,596,000, up by 81.4 percent or an increase of 1,614,000, other domestic funded enterprises 119,000, up by 116.3 percent or an increase of 64,000, that of enterprises with funds from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan was 84,000, up by 13.5 percent or an increase of 10,000, and 102,000 for foreign funded enterprises, up by 30.2 percent or an increase of 24,000 (see table 2).

Over 50 percent of the industrial units engaged in the secondary and tertiary industries were in the eastern part of China^[3], the distribution of those units still showed the pattern of descending from the east to the west. There were 3.727 million legal units in the eastern part of China, accounting for 52.5 percent of the total; that in the central part were 1.417 million, accounting for 20 percent; that in the western part 1.365 million, accounting for19.2 percent, and 0.59 million in the northeast part, or 8.3 percent. The number of establishments in eastern part was 4.412 million, accounting for 49.8 percent; that in central part was 1.853 million, accounting for 20.9 percent; that in western part was 1.868 million, accounting for 21.1percent, and 0.731 million in the northeast part, accounting for 8.2 percent. The number of self-employed individuals with licenses in eastern part was 11.341 million, accounting for 39.5 percent; that in central part was 7.076 million, accounting for 24.6 percent; that in western part was 7.464 million, accounting for 26 percent, and 2.856 million in the northeast part, accounting for 9.9 percent.

Among the establishments, 1,859,000 units were engaged in manufacturing industry, accounting for 21 percent. That of the wholesale and retail industries were 1,745,000, accounting for 19.7 percent; education 547,000, accounting for 6.2 percent; public management and social organizations 1,712,000, accounting for19.3 percent. The above-mentioned four sectors accounted for 66.2% of the total (see table 4).

Self-employed individuals with licenses were mainly spread in the following five sectors: 2,274,000 self-employed individuals in industrial sector, accounting for 7.9 percent; that in transport 4,596,000, accounting for 16 percent; that in wholesale and retail trade 15.491 million, accounting for 53.9 percent; hotel and catering trade 2,263,000, accounting for 7.9 percent and 2,693,000 in household service and other services, accounting for 9.4 percent (see table 5).

II. Number of Employed Persons

 

By the end of 2008, the total number of employed persons^[4] in the secondary and the tertiary industries was 355.07 million, up by 31.9 percent or an increase of 85.866 million over the first economic census in 2004. Of this, those who engaged in the secondary industry were 173.388 million, up by 24.7 percent or an increase of 34.382 million, and those in the tertiary industry were 181.682 million, up by 39.5 percent or an increase of 51.484. There were 273.115 million people engaged in industrial units, accounting for 76.9 percent of the total, and the self-employed individuals with licenses were 81.954 million, accounting for 23.1 percent. Of the total employed persons in the industrial units, the proportion of female was 34.7 percent, or 94.794 million.

 

Among the total number of employed persons engaged in units, there were 104.331 million in manufacturing sector, accounting for 38.2 percent; construction industry 39.077 million, 14.3 percent; public management and social organizations 22.285 million, 8.2 percent; education 17.236 million, 6.3 percent and wholesale and retail trade 18.92 million, 6.9 percent (see table 6).

Among the employed persons in units, the proportion of postgraduates, university graduates, college graduates, senior high school graduates, junior high school graduates and below was 1.3 percent, 11.4 percent, 17.6 percent, 31.5 percent and 38.2 percent respectively. Of the total number of employed persons with technical titles was 45.597 million, accounting for 16.7 percent. Of the total number of employed persons with certificates of technical skills was 23.811 million, or 8.7 percent (see table 7).

III. Total Assets of Corporations

 

By the end of 2008, the total assets of the corporations engaged in the second and tertiary industries were 207,800 billion yuan, up by 114.8 percent or an increase of 111,100 billion yuan over the end of 2004. Of this, the total assets of the state-owned corporations were 47,700 billion yuan, up by 58.5 percent or an increase of 17,600 billion yuan, that of the collective corporations were 4,400 billion yuan, down by 15.1 percent or a decrease of 800 billion yuan, share-holding cooperatives corporations 4,500 billion yuan, up by 141.1 percent or an increase of 2,600 billion yuan, private corporations 25,700 billion yuan, up by 194.9 percent or an increase of 17,000, enterprises with funds from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan 8,000 billion yuan, up by 89.8 percent or an increase of 3,800 billion yuan, and 13,500 billion yuan for foreign funded enterprises, up by 118 percent or an increase of 7,300 billion yuan (see table 8).

Table 8 Total Assets of Corporations by Status of Registration
	Total Assets （1,000 billion yuan）	Proportion (%)
Total	207.8	100.0
Domestic-funded Corporations	186.3	89.7
State-owned	47.7	23.0
Collective-owned	4.4	2.1
Share-holding Cooperatives	4.5	2.2
Joint Ownership	0.5	0.2
State Joint Ownership	0.3	0.1
Collective Joint Ownership	0.1	0.0
Joint State-Collective	0.1	0.1
Other Joint Ownership	0.1	0.0
Limited Liability Corporations	42.8	20.6
State Sole Funded	15.5	7.5
Other Limited Liability Corporations	27.3	13.1
Share-holding Corporations Ltd.	59.6	28.7
Private	25.7	12.3
Other Domestic Corporations	1.2	0.6
Corporations with Funds from Hong Kong,  Macao and Taiwan	8.0	3.9
Foreign Funded Enterprises	13.5	6.5

IV. Called up Capital of Corporations

 

By the end of 2008, the total value of called up capitals actually received^[5] by corporations engaged in the secondary and the tertiary industries were 34 trillion yuan, up by 87.1 percent or an increase of 15.8 trillion yuan over the end of 2004. Of the total capital received by the corporations (government agencies, institutions, and self-employed individuals were not included ), the state capitals were 11.4 trillion yuan, up by 67.4 or an increase of 4.6 trillion yuan, the collective capitals were 1.0 trillion yuan, almost the same with that at the end of 2004, capitals from legal person units were 8.7 trillion yuan, up by 88.0 percent or an increase of 4.1 trillion yuan; individual capitals were 7.8 trillion yuan, up by 138.4 percent or an increase of 4.5 trillion yuan; capitals from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan were 2.1 trillion yuan, up by 87.9 percent or an increase of 1.0 trillion yuan; and foreign capitals, 3.1 trillion, up by 125.6 percent or an increase of 1.7 trillion yuan.

      

 

Notes：

 

[1] The primary industry refers to agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery. The secondary industry refers to mining, manufacturing, production and supply of electricity, water and gas, and construction. The tertiary industry refers to all other economic activities not included in primary or secondary industries, including traffic, transportation, storage and post, information transmission, computer services and software, wholesale and retail trades, hotel and catering services, Financial Intermediation, real estate, leasing and business services, scientific research, technical services and geological prospecting, management of water conservancy, environment and public facilities, services to households and other services, education, health, social securities and social welfare, culture, sports and entertainment, public management and social organization, and international organizations. The current census does not include international organizations.

 

[2] Legal unit refers to economic unit meeting the following criteria: a) established by law with its own name, internal organization and locations, and capable of fulfilling independently its civil obligations; b) with independent ownership or rights (or authorized with rights) of using assets and bearing liabilities, with authority to sign contracts with other units; and c) with independent financial accounting, capable of compiling assets and liability tables.

 

Legal units include corporations, institutions, departments, social groups and other legal units. Establishment refers to auxiliary unit of a legal unit meeting the following criteria: a) engaged or mainly engaged in one economic or social activity at a fixed location; b) organizing its production or business operation independently; and c) with accounting data on its revenue and expenses (production account data).

 

Self-employed individuals with licenses refer to economic units except rural households where the means of production is owned by individuals, individual work constitutes the basic form of operation, and the results of operation are owned by or at the disposal of the individuals concerned.  They are individual industrial and commercial households registered at the business registration offices at all levels with operation licenses issued by such offices according to the Civil Law and the Provisional Regulations on Management of urban and rural individual industrial and commercial households. In detail, they refer to the citizens who are engaged in industry, commerce, construction, transport services and other activities within the scope permitted by law, as individual workers, getting registration approved by law.

 

[3] Eastern Region covers Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Shandong, Guangdong and Hainan; Central Region covers Shanxi, Anhui, Jiangxi, Henan, Hubei and Hunan; Western Region includes Inner Mongolia, Guangxi, Chongqing; Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Tibet, Shanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia and Xinjiang; and Northeast Region covers Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang.

 

[4] Employed persons refer to those employed by economic units or self-employed individuals with licenses in the secondary or tertiary industries on the day of Dec, 31^st, 2008, not including activities not covered above.

 

Employed persons in the units refer to the actual number of employees working in the units and getting labor remuneration or income, which covers the foreign staff, employees from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, part-time staff, retired persons re-employed, employees on secondment from other units, and second-employed persons working in various units, not included the persons who have left the units with working relationships still kept.

 

[5] Called up capital refers to capital (or capital stock) actually invested by investors according to the corporate charter, and the convention of the contract or agreement. In terms of ownership, capital can be classified as state capital, collective capital, private capital, capital from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and capital from foreign investors.

 

[6] Due to the errors arising from choosing decimals, the total number in the tables and some calculations are not mechanically adjusted.

 

(In case of any divergence in interpretation of the Communiqué, the Chinese version of the Communiqué shall take precedence)